The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs

415 Pages·1974·24.6 MB·English

by  Friedrich Nietzsche

FRIEDRICH
NIETZSCHE
lheGay
Science
With a Prelude
in Rhymes
- -
and
an Appendix
of Songs
THE
GAY SCIENCE
•••••
with a prelude in rhymes
of
and an appendix songs
Friedrich Nietzsche
Translated, with Commentary~ by
WALTER KAUFMANN
VINTAGE BOOKS
A Division of Random HOlJse
NEWYORX
VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, MlITcIJ 1974
Copyright © 1974 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House. Inc.,
New York. and simultaneously in Canada by Random House 0/ Canda
Limited. Toronto. Originally published by Random House, Inc. • in 1974.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nietzsche. Friedrich Wilhelm. 1844-1900.
The gay science.
"This translation is based on the second edition of
Die Jrohliche WissenschaJt. published in 1887."
1. Philosophy. 2. Man. J. Religion-Philosophy.
4. Power (Philosophy) 5. Ethics. I. Kaufmann.
Walter Arnold. tr. II. Title.
[B3J1J.F72E5 1974b] 193 73-10479
ISBN 0-394-71985-9
Manufactured in the United States 0/ America
E987654321
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A Note on the Text
This translation is based on the second edition of Die Frohliche
WissenschajtJ published in IBB7, which agrees with the first
edition of 1882. but contains three substantial additions: an
important ten-page Preface. Book V (sections 343-3B4). and an
Appendix of Songs. Nietzsche also changed the title page and
replaced the motto from Emerson with a four-liner of his own.
When citing the original German in the ootes, I have mod
ernized the spelling (changing th to t).
The text of the book that appears io various collected German
editions is also that of the second edition-except for some
small, unacknowledged changes, noted in the commentary. One
of these changes is rather serious (in section 370).
One collected edition that I refer to occasionally is Gesam
melte Werke, Musarionausgabe, 23 volumes, Musarion Verlag,
Munich. 1920-29. Two other German works are quoted a num
ber of times: Friedrich Nietzsches Brie/e an Peter Gast. ed.
Peter Gast, Insel Verlag, Leipzig. 1908, and Friedrich Njetzsches
Briejwechsel mit Franz Overbeck, ed. Richard Oehler and Carl
Albrecht Bernoulli. Insel Verlag. Leipzig. 1916.
Abbreviations
BWN: Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Translated and Edited, with
Commentaries, by Walter Kaufmann. The Modem Li
brary. Random House, New York. 1968. This volume
contains The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil.
On the Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, and
Ecce Homo, as well as additional selections.
VPN: The Portable Nietzsche, Selected and Translated, with
an Introduction, Prefaces, and Notes by Walter Kauf
mann. The Viking Press, New York. 1954. This volume
contains Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Twilight of the Idols,
The Antichrist, and Nietzsche contra Wagner, as well as
additional selections.
Kaufmann: Walter Kaufmann. Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychol
ogist, Antichrist. Third Edition. Princeton University
Press. Princeton. 1968, and Vintage Books, Random
House, New· York. 1968. Nietzsche Bibliography on
pp.477-502.
NOTB: Arabic figures after these three abbreviations
refer to pages in these editions.
The Will to Power, Edited, with Commentary, by Walter Kauf
mann, Vintage Books, Random House, New York. 1968,
is cited by referring to the numbers of the 1067 notes.

CONTENTS
.'.'.
A Note on the Text vi
Abbreviations vii
Translator's Introduction 3
Nietzsche's Preface for the Second Edition 32
"Joke, Cunning, and Revenge":
Prelude in German Rhymes 39
1. Invitation, 41 16. Up, 47
2. My Happiness, 41 17. The Maxim of the Brute.
3. Undaunted. 41 47
4. Dialogue, 41 18. Narrow Souls. 47
5 To the Virtuous. 43 19. The Involuntary Seducer,
6. Worldly Wisdom. 43 47
7. Vademecum - Vadetecum. 20. For your Consideration. 49
43 21. Against Airs. 49
8. Shedding the Third Skin, 22. Man and Woman. 49
43 23. Interpretation, 49
9. My Roses, 45 24. Medicine for Pessimists.
10. Scom,4S 49
11. The Proverb Speaks, 45 2S. Request, 49
12. To a Light-Lover. 4S 26. My Hardness. 5 t
13. For Dancers. 47 27. The Wanderer, 51
14. The Good Man. 47 28. Consolation for Beginners,
15. RUst. 47 51
ix
x CONTENTS
29. The Egoism of the Stars, 46. Judgments of the Weary,
53 61
30. The Neighbor, 53 47. Decline. 61
31. The Disguised Saint. 53 48. Against the Laws. 61
32. The Unfree Man. 53 49. The Sage Speaks, 61
33. The Solitary, 53 50. Lost His Head. 63
34. Seneca et hoc genus omne, 51. Pious Wishes, 63
55 52. Writing with One's Feet,
35. Ice, 55 63
36. Juvenilia, 55 53. Human. All Too Human:
37. Caution. 55 A Book. 63
18. The Pious Retort, 57 54. To My Reader. 63
39. In the Summer, 57 55. Realistic Painters. 65
40. Without Envy, 57 56. Poet's Vanity. 65
41. Heraclitean, 57 57. Choosy Taste, 65
42. Principle of the Overly Re 58. A Crooked Nose. 65
fined,59 59. The Pen is Stubborn. 65
43. Admonition. 59 60. Higher Men, 67
44. The Thorough Who Get to 61. The Skeptic Speaks. 67
the Bottom of Things. 59 62. Ecce Homo, 67
45. Forever, 59 63. Star Morals. 69
BOOKONE 71
1. The teachers of the pur 8. Unconscious virtues. 82
pose of existence. 73 9. OUT eruptions. 83
2. The intellectual conscience. to. A kind of atavism, 84
76 11. Consciousness. 84
3. Noble and common. 17 12. On the aim of science. 85
4. What preserves the species, 13. On the doctrine of the feel
79 ing of power, 86
5. Unconditional duties. 80 14. The things people call love,
6. Loss of dignity. 81 88
7. Something for the indus- 15. From a distance, 89
trious,81 16. Over the footbridge. 90
CONTENTS xi
17. Finding motives for our 37. Owing to three errors, 105
poverty, 90 38. The explosive ones, 106
18. The pride of classical an- 39. Changed taste, 106
tiquity,91 40. On the lack of noble man-
19. Evil,91 ners.107
20. The dignity of fony, 92 41. Against remorse, 108
21. To the teachers of selfish 42. Work and boredom, 108
ness. 92 43. What laws betray. 109
22. Vordre du jour pour Ie roi, 44. Supposed motives. 109
95 45. Epicurus, 110
23. The signs of corruption, 96 46. Our amazement, 111
24. Diverse dissatisfaction, 98 47. On the suppression of the
25. Not predestined for knowl passions, 112
edge, 100 48. Knowledge of misery, 112
26. What is life? 100 49. Magnanimity and related
27. The man of renunciation, matters, 114
100 50. The argument of growing
28. To be harmful with what is solitude, 114
best in us, 101 51 Truthfulness, 115
29. Add lies, 101 52. What others know about
30. The comedy played by the us, 115
famous. 102 53. Where the good begins.
31. Trade and nobility, 102 115
32. Undestrable disciples, 103 54. The consciousness of ap·
33. Outside the lecture hall, pearance, 116
104 55. The ultimate nobleminded
34. H istoria abscondita, 104 ness, 117
35. Heresy and witchcraft, 104 56. The craving for suffering,
36. Last words, 105 117
BOOK TWO 119
57. To the realists, 121 60. Women and their action at
58. Only as creators! 121 a distance, 123
59. We artists, 122 61. In honor of friendship, 124